EXCLUSIVE: Canadian production house 9 Light Entertainment has opened an unscripted division with Lights, Camera… Kitchen! being its debut title.

To date, Toronto-based 9 Lights has focused on scripted TV and film, but founder Pasha Patriki has opted to push into unscripted with the four-part reality show Lights, Camera… Kitchen!, which debuts on Bell Fibe’s TV1, the Bell Canada-owned community network in Canada, on May 28.

Lights, Camera… Kitchen! will go behind-the-scenes in a working kitchen owned by entrepreneurs and business partners, Nataliya and Leeza – a Russian and a Ukrainian whose shared love of cooking was turned into a multi-generational catering operation for film and TV productions.

The series sees them joined by Nataliya’s mother Irina, Leeza’s mother Sasha, and Nataliya’s daughter Kristina as they deliver meals to cast and crew across demanding shoots in remote locations and in harsh North Ontario winters. The episodes will capture the action on both sides of the camera, spotlighting menu planning, family drama, entrepreneurial spirit and cultinary mishaps set against the pressure of production deadlines.

9 Lights designed the show with international sales in mind, though no distributor is currently attached.

“With the launch of our unscripted division, we wanted our first project to feel deeply human,” said 9 Lights founder Patriki. “Lights, Camera… Kitchen! is a series built around real personalities, real pressure, and the beautiful chaos that happens behind the scenes of filmmaking.”

Patriki is known as a cinematographer with credits for the likes of action feature Black Water, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. His company, founded in 2015, has previously teamed with the likes of Raven Banner Entertainment to produce genre movies through joint venture Hangar 18 Media. Recently, Hangar 18 launch a sub-brand, Berserkergang, which is a genre lab created with rock guitarist Slash. The label made its debut with Deathstalker, which premiered in Locarno last year.

Other recent 9 Light titles include Frankie Freako, You Gotta Believe and Owen, a UK-Canadian co-production currently in post.